Seeds of Light

How the Wind Helps Us Become Who We Already Are

A Canada Day Reflection by Marilyn Hamilton for the Findhorn Foundation Seeds of Light Experience.

Every July 1, Canadians celebrate the maple leaf. This year, on Canada Day, I found myself thinking not of the leaf, but of the maple seed. Unlike many seeds that simply fall to the ground, the maple seed is designed to fly. Its delicate wings catch the invisible currents of air, allowing it to travel far beyond the shadow of its parent tree. It does not know where it will land. It simply trusts the wind.

As I prepared to offer the first reflection in the Seeds of Light speaker series at Park Ecovillage Findhorn, I realised that the maple seed might be one of Nature’s most beautiful teachers. Perhaps we, too, are Seeds of Light.

We All Come From Somewhere

Each of us began as a tiny seed, already carrying gifts. We inherit more than our DNA. We carry the stories of our ancestors, the love of our families, the wisdom of our cultures, the joy that has lifted us and the grief that has shaped us. None of us arrives empty.

Nature never asks an acorn to become a maple, nor a maple to become a pine. Life delights in uniqueness. Each of us is a unique expression of Life remembering itself.

What Is Carried on the Winds to Us?

The maple seed does not choose the wind. It opens itself to it. Perhaps the better question is not, ‘Where am I going?‘ but ‘What is carried on the winds to me – with me – even as me?‘

• The ecosystems we inhabit.
• The relationships that shape us.
• Unexpected events.
• Moments of emergence.
• Communities we discover.
• Even the living Earth herself.

What first feels like interruption often turns out to be invitation. Life is always speaking. Can we hear it?

Who Is Listening?

Life is also always asking – and if we pay attention we may hear more than one question. Our small self might ask, Who should I become? But Life is more likely to ask – Who am I becoming? And with discernment we may actually hear Life pose: Who is Life asking me to become? This question embraces our inner life and our outer expression, our soul and our service, our roots and our leaves. Like the seed, we never stop becoming.

Who With?

No tree becomes a forest. No bee creates a hive. No fungus creates a mycelial network. No person creates a community. We become ourselves together with others. That is one of Findhorn’s enduring gifts. Community is not the goal; it is the living soil in which each of us grows.

How Do We Ride the Wind?

If the winds are always changing, how do we travel well? Three companions (whom I have recognized elsewhere as Strategic Intelligences from the GPS) have served me over many years:

Inquiry—who encourages me to stay curious and ask better questions.

Meshworking—who notices unexpected connections between myself and ourselves and the living patterns around us.

Navigation—who adjusts my and our directions as the winds change.

The maple seed does not fight the wind. It dances with it. Perhaps wisdom is less about certainty and more about responsiveness.

Why?

Over the past several weeks I have been exploring what I call the Intelligences of the Human Hive. They are really descriptions of how Life itself grows. Every seed learns where it belongs. Every living being discovers who it is. Every forest teaches relationship. Every ecosystem learns how to navigate change. Through us, perhaps, evolution becomes conscious of itself. James Lovelock invited us to imagine Gaia as a living system. I have found myself wondering whether I-We-World are becoming  Gaia’s Reflective Organs—Life learning about itself through our choices, our love, our creativity and our care.

We Are Part of a Great Story

One of the reasons I cherish Findhorn is because of three “ordinary” people. Dorothy Maclean listened. Eileen Caddy reflected. Peter Caddy acted. As Seeds aka Founders, they brought three different gifts. Three Seeds into one Garden. Miraculously, each of them did imagine that through their small and large acts of faith the practices and principles they lived by could and would travel on the winds across the planet. The Seeds they planted have nurtured three generations by now – but each generation has nurtured the seed they received in diverse ways. And the impulse to regenerate invites every generation to let the Seeds fly again.

Trusting the Wind

Every forest begins with a single seed released into the unknown. Perhaps every community begins with one act of listening. Perhaps every future begins with someone willing to trust the wind.

As I reflected on the maple seed, I realised that becoming a Seed of Light is not about becoming extraordinary. It is about becoming fully ourselves, rooted in our inheritance, open to the winds of change, growing with others, and trusting that Life knows where it is inviting us to land.

Today I leave you with two gentle questions:

What Seed of Light has Life entrusted to you?

And what wind is quietly waiting to carry it?

Marilyn Hamilton

Canada Day 2026

Ecovillage Findhorn, Scotland